The Lightning Product Audit
The Lightning Product Audit is a 30min exercise for Product Managers/Leaders to identify the key risks all products face - & to help you take concrete steps to address those risks.
Why is it so important?
If your product lacks strong foundations, it will never succeed.
Most PMs focus on all the wrong stuff, such as how to prioritize their backlog of features.
What primarily matters? If we look at the data on the right, what are the two big things that determine product success?
Addressing the right problem (represented by "lack of market need")
Building a differentiated product solution i.e., something unique + valued (6/9 of the top reasons for product failure stem from lack of differentiation)
Your job as a product leader is managing risk. Whether for the product you currently manage, a product you might be interviewing for, or coming in as a consultant, you must immediately be able to assess these two key risks.
This template was created by Prod MBA.
Get started with this template right now.
Lean Canvas Template
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Strategic Planning, Agile Workflows
Business opportunities can get dense, cumbersome, and complex, and evaluating them can be a real challenge. Let a lean canvas streamline things and break down your business idea for you and your team. A great tool or entrepreneurs and emerging businesses, this one-page business model gives you an easy, high-level view of your idea — so you can stay focused on overall strategy, identify potential threats and opportunities, and brainstorm the various factors at play in determining your potential profitability in an industry.
Work Plan Template
Works best for:
Mapping, Project Planning
A work plan is essentially a roadmap for a project. It articulates the steps you must take to achieve the desired goal, sets demonstrable objectives, and establishes measurable deliverables. An effective work plan guides you throughout the project lifecycle, allowing you to realize an outcome by collaborating with your team. Although work plans vary, they generally contain four core components: goals, strategy, tactics, and deliverables.
Flyer Maker Template
Works best for:
Design, Marketing
Whether it’s a client party or a nonprofit fundraiser, your event needs one key thing to be a smashing success: people to show up. That’s why promoting it is such an important part of the planning—and creating and sending a flyer is the first step. These single-page files will grab your guests’ attention and give them the key details, such as the time, date, and location (and if it’s a fundraiser, who/what the funds will benefit). This template will let you lay out text and customize a flyer design.
Fishbone Diagram for Marketing
Works best for:
Fishbone diagram
Identifying the root causes of marketing challenges is essential for effective strategy development. The Fishbone Diagram for Marketing template helps you systematically explore factors affecting your marketing efforts. Categorize potential causes into areas such as market research, product positioning, promotional strategies, and distribution channels. This structured analysis enables your team to pinpoint and address issues, optimizing marketing campaigns.
Empathy Map Template
Works best for:
Market Research, User Experience, Mapping
Attracting new users, compelling them to try your product, and turning them into loyal customers—it all starts with understanding them. An empathy map is a tool that leads to that understanding, by giving you space to articulate everything you know about your customers, including their needs, expectations, and decision-making drivers. That way you’ll be able to challenge your assumptions and identify the gaps in your knowledge. Our template lets you easily create an empathy map divided into four key squares—what your customers Say, Think, Do, and Feel.
Product Thinking Board
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
Product Thinking Board template encourages a user-centered approach to product development. By fostering empathy, collaboration, and experimentation, this template stimulates innovative thinking and problem-solving. With sections for user research, ideation, and prototyping, it supports iterative product design and validation. This template serves as a visual framework for product teams to engage in user-centric design thinking processes, driving the creation of products that truly meet user needs and deliver exceptional experiences.